I see you painted the cross bars and some of the other aluminum parts. I have heard that painting these dont hold as well since the paint is not anodized to the aluminum. I may be using bad terminolgy but basically I have heard the paint wont last since it is not the factory paint.

What is your opinion about this? Do you expect this to last while? I'd love to do my aluminum but havent because I was not sure it would last long enough to be worth the effort.

Thank you so much for posting your restoration pictures/project H18. You have inspired me!

I recently purchased a 1983 H18 here in South Africa from the local hobie dealer. Overall she wasnt in bad condition, but the years where showing. With the delears help, I can only sing his praises, the yacht was stripped right down and the "restoration" begins.

Your pictures of the aliminium pieces painted, inspired me to go the anodizing route to a matt black finish. Took these thru to the bath today for treating after the crossbeam was at the aircraft welders to attend to hairline cracks at the mounting point. The ball has been upgraded to Tiger Style. Next up both hulls (also in blue) have been pressure tested and repaired at the gunwalls where small leaks have been found.

We start work tomorrow on the trailer with a rub down and red oxide treatment to finnish in red. Thanks for the inspiration.

I see you painted the cross bars and some of the other aluminum parts. I have heard that painting these dont hold as well since the paint is not anodized to the aluminum. I may be using bad terminolgy but basically I have heard the paint wont last since it is not the factory paint.

What is your opinion about this? Do you expect this to last while? I'd love to do my aluminum but havent because I was not sure it would last long enough to be worth the effort.

I see you painted the cross bars and some of the other aluminum parts. I have heard that painting these dont hold as well since the paint is not anodized to the aluminum. I may be using bad terminolgy but basically I have heard the paint wont last since it is not the factory paint.

What is your opinion about this? Do you expect this to last while? I'd love to do my aluminum but havent because I was not sure it would last long enough to be worth the effort.

For what its worth, I rattle-canned my rudder castings, tiller arms and tiller crossbar last spring with Rustoleum "High Heat Grill Paint". Simple process. As is the case with any paint project, surface preparation is paramount. Poolemarkw's castings look better than mine (mine have a flat finish while his have the "pop" of a glossy finish) but still, I'm very pleased with the results. This spring I'm going to do the same thing to my crossbars. No scratches on my rudder system so far but I'm sure I'll eventually get some. The nice thing with the rattle can approach is it makes for very easy touch-ups if/when needed.

In your first (top) picture of the hulls in the paint booth, you said you had sanded off all the easypoxy paint. Is this picture just after the sanding and before any of your primer coat? I would have thought that the hulls would be back down to the original blue gel coat. Is the "rough" white I see the previous owners primer on top of the original blue gel coat?

These hulls look great and I may be getting the itch to do mine (yellow). So I am not sure to what level to sand, or if I need to do any "deep" sanding at all on my gel coat. One of my hulls has been painted and is lightly flaking on the side.

Yes, I took off ALL of the previous easypoxy paint until I was down to the "gunsmoke blue" original gelcoat. I filled and sanded the dings and scratches and originally planned to shoot the IMRON right over that. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you look at it, I was sanding over one of my fixes that I had also sprayed some primer on, and found little pinholes in several places on both hulls. Then I found more, then more, and more. You couldn't see them until the white primer had been shot over them. This convinced me to shoot the automotive primer over the entirety of both hulls to reveal these pinholes so I could fill them. That is the white that you see in my picture. You'll certainly want to remove ALL of the paint from your hulls before you do any painting.

Regarding painting my aluminum pieces, I lightly sanded them and then primed with Rustoleum Aluminum Primer before shooting with the Rustoleum Universal Satin Black. It was a fairly flat finish until I waxed them with Meguires automotive wax. It made them go from flat to the semi-gloss that you see in the pictures. Time will tell how long it will last, but the Rustoleum Tech Support person said it should last around five years. I'll be happy with that, and plan to wax them once a year.

Thanks guys, it was a huge amount of effort but I enjoyed it. Every part, down to the last screw, was either cleaned, repaired, or replaced. Now I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with it this year.

BrianCT, the sails are original 1985 Red Lines in amazing condition. I found them on eBay a few months ago. I also have a Carumba set that my wife and daughter really like but they're showing some age.

I drilled a hole through the forward mast crutch and use a bolt with a wing nut to attached the furler to it. This keeps the tension off of the wire.

Just remember to disconnect before taking the boat off. My 16yo muscle bound teenager thought the boat was stuck when he was taking it off the trailer so we could do some maintenance on the trailer.....oh well, they needed to be replaced anyways.

In your paint booth pic I see your hull stands. I take it you flip them over when you flip your hulls over, is that correct? What were the measurements you used? I was just going to use my hulls as a templet but if you remember the measurements I would greatly appreciate the info.